CANADA
Ottawa Sun
BY ANDREW DUFFY, POSTMEDIA NETWORK
FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 02, 2016
The Archdiocese of Ottawa has launched the process required to officially remove Rev. Barry McGrory from the priesthood. It’s the strongest penalty that can be imposed by the Catholic Church against a wayward cleric.
“We have reported the case of Barry McGrory to the Holy See and are waiting to hear from them,” Deacon Gilles Ouellette wrote this week in response to a question from abuse victim Colleen Passard, who has been calling since May for the priest to be defrocked.
A diocese can initiate the process to remove a priest, but only the Vatican has the power to impose such a penalty.
Ouellette, a spokesman for the Ottawa diocese, said Friday the Vatican will now have to review the facts of the case and decide whether to remove McGrory from the priesthood, a process known as laicization.
The news comes one week after McGrory was charged by Ottawa police in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy in the late 1960s. McGrory was then working at the Major Seminary of Ottawa and at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. He was released on $10,000 bail.
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